I was just a little tuned off is all, as this was my first "Ask the seller a question" e-mail.. I expect questions, and hope potential buyers would email me so everyone is happy.

This guy just came accross as a .. well its a family site

I do believe his three bids were an attempt to find out the reserve. I really don't like reserve auctions, but you have to have +10 feedback for a BIN listing and I really don't want it to go for nothing so I put a reserve. I researched recent completed auctions for the same item and put my reserve about 25 - 40 dollars less than what those were going for.

Anyway, live and learn practice will make perfect I guess.

Thanks for all the links Dale. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

BTW I don't think I will e hearing back from this guy again. If I do I can work the delete button no problem.

Ah yes, the deadbeat bidder.Now...he could be busy, but my speculation from the event-chain you've posted is that he may have become impatient and got the item somewhere else? That, or he's mad at you.

Unfortunately, you must tread lightly to avoid receiving bad feedback from the guy. Here's what I would do.

First all...you have your items. So nothing is lost. Remember that.

Send him a letter saying you haven't heard from him in a week, and offer him three days to make payment. If he does not respond in that time, send him an Ebay payment reminder....which is an option you'll find in the seller's section of Ebay under "Non-paying bidders". This time, the reminder will come from Ebay..and give him 7 days (I think) to respond.

After that...you have to fill out a non-paying bidder report...and I think that one gives him a final 10 days to fix things. If he doesn't come through by then, your insertion and final value fees are credited back to you, and the transaction is considered closed. You can then leave negative feedback if you want to.

So all in all....you're looking at a max of 20 more days to deal with this guy, but hopefully a friendly email reminder with a not so friendly deadline will jump start him.

In my postings, under payment information I indicate that payment must be received within 12 days or negative feedback will be left. That gives the buyer a timeline (I'd hardly be difficult about it, if communication was satisfactory) and me an expectation. Not sure if your auction had that information or not Scott. If not, you sort of left yourself open, but not for an exceedingly unreasonable period of time.

Think of payment in the mail. Letters (money order or whatever) usually come quite promptly, within a week from US to Canada, so presuming you told him last Tuesday, it's only been a week. Letters can take longer, up to and over two weeks, so I'd still be patient.

Sounds like you've got one of the classier ebayers to deal with. I've been fortunate most of the time to deal with really good folks that actually email back and forth and have some understanding of time and lives. This person may not be like that. He may have sent payment though, and not been considerate enough to tell you. I'd wait a while for payment, send him another email outlining your concerns politely and see what happens. Give him a deadline for the payment to be in your hands so he has a timeframe as well.

About paypal and the buyer....If you didn't list it, too bad for him. I often don't bid on auctions that don't include paypal, but know DSJ will be the exact opposite if the auction is paypal only. It doesn't matter what the buyer wants to do unless that option was available to him and you refuse it. In this case you indicate paypal was not listed, so he's out of luck and should read more carefully.

worst case scenario you leave negative feedback for him (and likely get same in return). You can give a second chance offer to the next highest bidder, if you're satisfied with their bid amount. Sometimes they take it, sometimes not.

Well according to eBay, you have 3 days to contact each other after the auction ends. I usually contact the buyer the next day asking for there information so I can work out the shipping costs. Once I receive an email from them, I get back to them within a couple of days for out of countrie auctions as I take it to the Post Office for an actual as there is a discrepancy between online & actual that I have found out.

If its in Canada, then I can do it online. My payment methods are listed in the auction & I do not take paypal as I have had problems with them. The are people that want to pay by Paypal but I tell them no. If they can't agree to that, then they should not have bid IMO.

Some transactions take awhile to complete. I have an auction I won last week from a seller that I dealt with before. He sends me the information I need with the total cost but his Postal Code has changed. So I email him back to confirm if I should send to the old addy or the new one. 8 day have passed & I have heard nothing. I'm not sending him payment till I get an answer. He maybe on vaction or something so I will give him a bit more time.

Now since he has emailed you many times asking for the cost & you have email him stating you would get him the cost, I would tell him to relaxe & that your not married to the PC everyday.

People think you should respond within 12 hrs or they think something is wrong.

Email him again & just say, "Just wondering if you received my email with the total cost. PLMK, Thanks".

Right now I'm in the middle of tranactions & they have been pretty good thus far. I did have an email last night * again this morning asking if I received his money order but the mail has not come yet today & he can wait till it does. If the payment has not arrived, then I'll tell him, nothing thus far but it should be here soon. Please be patient as its in the Post Offices hand.

Guess what, the mail arrived & his payment is here. 8 days surface from NY. Not bad IMO so his parcel will ship tomorrow as soon as I cash the MO in the morning. I notified him so he is aware & I will send him another email after I ship it.

Another possibility is that your buyer is not receiving your emails regularly or at all.

I use my Yahoo! email address with eBay, and I've had numerous buyers never receive my "congratulations!" emails due to SPAM blockers, etc. In these cases, I email the winning bidder (or send an invoice) through eBay letting them know that I had initially sent them an email and just reassure them that I have tried to contact them previously. Always works out.

Or...

Like previous posters have suggested, could be a deadbeat bidder. No big loss other than time. Just make sure to file a non-paying bidder alert.

I am pretty sure he didn't mail the payment as he doesn't have my address. I know you can get it from eBay but I would have recieved an e-mail stating so right?

I am also pretty sure he is recieving my e-mails because one of his e-mails is a reply to the first one I sent.

For the second chance offer... this guy barely met my reserve price, and he bid about 15 times in a row in order to do so. The other bidder would be way too low for me to offer it. If this doesn't work I am going to have to relist it.

I am thinking he is either pissed that, in his world, it took too long for me to get him a shipping quote and is making me wait as "payback", or he was actually hoping NOT to win the auction, and was just trying to find my reserve hoping to get out-bid.

I am really confused over this guy, he has really good feedback. Not a ton (34) but all really positive comments...

Maybe he is away or something... I noticed he hasn't bid on anything on eBay since my auction, nor has he left feedback for anyone since before my auction ended.

I send hima polite e-mail asking if he got my total, and if he could contact me.

We shall see, I'll give him the benifit of the doubt for a wehile longer. Just would have been nice to have this thing completed.

I get an e-mail from the guy late last night... here is the jist of it. Bold face is the buyer's comments...

1. - Sorry for the delay, I have been away. - OK

2. - I am not happy with the way this transaction went. I damaged my phone (I was selling a cell phone) and needed a repalcement quickly. - Never told me this... until now. If I was in his shoes, my e-mail would have read like this. Hi, I just won your auction. Here is my shipping information. Can you get me a total, asap as I broke my phone, and need a replacement for a trip I am leaving on in two days....

3. - I took you almost a week to get me the final value. - Well actually it was three business days. He seems to want to count Saturday and Sunday. He is Canadian and should know the PO is closed those days.

4. - If I were a seller, there is no way I would have waited six days for payment from the buyer. I would have re-listed the item. - Well I guess I am just a nicer guy than he is.

5. - Additionally, this experience has raised concerns about your ability to ship this parcel after receiving payment. - No real response here, but in now way do I promise a time frame for shipping, but IMO shipping within 48 - 72 hours is OK. So far I have shipped the next day after reciving payment... Sounds like an excuse to me.

6. - Please understand that it is not my intention to have negative feedback exchanged on this transaction .... I would therefore like to be released from any responsibility you feel that I have to honour my original bid amount - OK, so here is the truth.. he doesn't want to pay.

Now, the other interesting item I should mention regarding his "need for a phone".. he just sold 2 (two) brand new cell phones himself. One ended about a day before mine, the other about 7 days. He seems to have no problem accessing cell phones...

If I were to let him out of it, would I not have to file a non paying bidder in order to get my fees back, or would the simple action of relisting it do that.

Part of me doesn't have a problem relisting it since it barely went for my reserve price, but I want to make sure I get my fees credited back.

Well, in order to receive your credit, you do need to file a non-paying bidder alert. See link. Make sure you stick to the eBay timeframes.

I would send the bidder an email defending (nicely) your side, and inform him/her that in order for you not to lose money on this deal, you have to file the NPB to get your credit from eBay. Let him/her know that you are more than willing to complete the deal quickly from here, or you need to do the NPB. Most buyers don't know that sellers have to pay fees to sell things on eBay; they just think it's one big free swap meet.

Also, he/she seems concerned about negative feedback. You don't have to give a negative (or any feedback at all). The NPB alert will just be a strike against his internal reputation with eBay (they get three strikes). You might also think about forwarding the link above to this bidder, just for his/her own information.

Yep, stormie summed it all up. Sounds to me like he didn't want to pay in the first place. Just follow the directions in the Non-Paying-Bidder / Final Value Fee Credit Request Program & you should be OK.

I just sent him an e-mail stating in polite terms that his winning bid is a contract and I expected him to honour it.

I belive his crap about a trip and a broken phone is a lie. The beginning of his trip would have put him leaving on the second business day after the auction, no way to ship a parcel across Canada in time, Express Post or not.

I also advised him if he has special needs he should email the seller before bidding, not after he wins!

Long story short.. tough luck pal. Pay or don't pay. And if it is not I will follow all the eBay methods, even if it does get me a retaliatory neg.!!